DAN LLOYD CLINICAL COUNSELLOR
Registered Therapeutic Counsellor | Young Adult Mental Health, Trauma-Informed CBT & Digital Wellbeing
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Dan Lloyd is a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC) with more than a decade of international experience supporting adolescents, young adults, and adults through anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, compulsive behaviours, relationship difficulties, and major life transitions.
Originally trained in the United Kingdom, Dan combines the warmth and emotional safety of humanistic counselling with practical, evidence-informed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). His approach helps clients better understand the experiences and patterns shaping their lives, develop healthier coping strategies, strengthen emotional resilience, and move toward meaningful and sustainable change.
Dan is especially passionate about supporting adolescents and young adults as they navigate identity, education, relationships, independence, career uncertainty, digital pressures, and the transition into adulthood. He also brings a strong interest in digital wellbeing, behavioural addictions, trauma recovery, and the ways online environments can influence emotional regulation, relationships, self-esteem, and mental health.
You can expect Dan to bring authenticity, compassion, curiosity, and practical guidance to the therapeutic relationship. He creates a non-judgmental space in which people can speak openly about difficult experiences while also developing concrete strategies that support growth outside the counselling room.
Dan’s integrative approach brings together relationship-centred humanistic counselling and structured Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
The humanistic foundation of his work emphasizes empathy, dignity, emotional safety, and respect for each client’s unique life experience. Dan believes meaningful change begins within a genuine therapeutic relationship where clients feel heard, understood, and accepted without judgment.
Alongside this relational approach, Dan uses practical CBT strategies to help clients recognize unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, behaviours, and coping patterns. Depending on each client’s needs, his work may include psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, behavioural activation, collaborative goal setting, problem-solving, and emotional regulation skills.
This balance allows therapy to remain compassionate and exploratory while also offering structure, direction, and practical tools for everyday life.
The transition from adolescence into adulthood can be exciting, uncertain, and emotionally demanding. Young people may be navigating academic pressure, changing relationships, career decisions, financial independence, questions of identity, and the growing responsibility of making choices about their futures.
Dan has extensive experience supporting adolescents and young adults through these important developmental years. He helps clients make sense of their experiences, strengthen confidence, improve emotional regulation, and develop a more secure sense of identity and direction.
He supports young people navigating concerns such as:
Dan meets young people where they are, working collaboratively to help them move beyond survival-based coping and toward greater confidence, resilience, and personal agency.
A distinctive area of Dan’s practice is his understanding of digital mental health and the influence of social media, online relationships, gaming, and constant digital connection.
Today’s adolescents and young adults are developing their identities within digital environments that can offer community and connection while also contributing to comparison, isolation, overstimulation, cyberbullying, sleep disruption, and reduced self-worth.
Dan helps clients explore how their digital experiences may be affecting their emotional wellbeing, relationships, confidence, attention, and daily functioning. His work in this area may include support related to:
Rather than approaching technology use with shame or judgment, Dan helps clients understand what emotional needs their digital habits may be meeting and supports them in developing realistic boundaries and greater balance.
Dan works with clients experiencing compulsive behaviours that may have begun as ways of coping with anxiety, loneliness, boredom, stress, trauma, or emotional pain. His approach focuses on understanding the underlying emotional and behavioural patterns rather than defining the person by the behaviour.
Dan provides support for concerns related to:
Therapy may involve identifying triggers, understanding the emotional function of the behaviour, developing alternative coping strategies, strengthening emotional regulation, and rebuilding healthier connections with relationships, work, study, and personal values.
Dan practices from a trauma-informed perspective that recognizes how adverse childhood experiences, unresolved relational injuries, chronic stress, and difficult life events can continue to influence thoughts, emotions, behaviour, relationships, and physical wellbeing.
He supports clients in exploring these experiences at a pace that feels safe and manageable. His work emphasizes understanding rather than judgment and helps clients recognize how earlier survival strategies may still be affecting their lives today.
Dan has experience supporting clients navigating:
By combining trauma-informed care with practical CBT strategies, Dan helps clients develop greater awareness, strengthen emotional regulation, and build healthier patterns of coping and connection.
Before immigrating to Canada, Dan developed extensive experience through roles with several respected mental health organizations in the United Kingdom, including the Anna Freud Centre, Kooth, and Mind UK.
During his work with the Anna Freud Centre, Dan used structured CBT interventions, psychoeducation, collaborative action plans, and goal setting to support individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, stress, anger, grief, emotional dysregulation, and self-harm.
This experience strengthened his understanding of developmentally sensitive, evidence-informed mental health care for children, adolescents, young adults, and families.
Through Kooth, a major UK digital mental health service for young people, Dan provided online counselling and mental health support to adolescents and young adults.
His work included crisis intervention, safety planning, emotional support, and practical therapeutic strategies for young people experiencing significant distress. This role also gave him valuable insight into adverse childhood experiences, social media pressures, digital identity, eating disorders, self-harm, and the challenges of providing ethical and effective care online.
While working with Mind UK, Dan provided counselling and facilitated peer-support services for individuals with diverse mental health needs.
He worked within a collaborative community setting alongside healthcare professionals, support services, and community partners. This experience reinforced his commitment to accessible, compassionate care and the value of combining clinical support with practical resources and community connection.
Dan has worked extensively with young people and adults from diverse cultural, religious, social, and family backgrounds.
He recognizes that emotional wellbeing cannot be separated from culture, identity, family expectations, faith, community, gender, sexuality, and lived experience. His approach is grounded in cultural humility and curiosity, with care tailored to each client’s values, beliefs, background, and personal goals.
Dan has completed continuing education related to culture and diversity and LGBTQ+ affirming care. He aims to provide an inclusive and respectful therapeutic environment where clients can explore identity, relationships, and emotional wellbeing without fear of judgment.
Dan supports adolescents, young adults, and adults navigating concerns including:
Dan holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Counselling from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
He is a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC) with the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada and continues to develop his clinical practice through ongoing education and supervision.
His additional professional training includes:
This training has been completed through organizations including the Orca Institute, the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute, and other professional education providers.
Dan provides counselling within the collaborative, trauma-informed clinical environment at Gentle Currents Therapy and receives ongoing clinical supervision from Dr. Michael Dadson, PhD, RCC, CCC, Clinical Director.
This supervision supports Dan’s continued professional development and his pathway toward RCC registration while helping ensure that his work remains ethically grounded, clinically thoughtful, and consistent with the standards of care at Gentle Currents Therapy.
Dan’s areas of focus complement the broader Gentle Currents team by extending the clinic’s services in young adult mental health, trauma-informed CBT, behavioural addictions, digital wellbeing, emotional regulation, and accessible counselling support.
Dan provides both in-person counselling at Gentle Currents Therapy in Langley and secure online counselling for clients throughout British Columbia.
When you work with Dan, you can expect a therapeutic relationship grounded in warmth, honesty, collaboration, and practical support.
Dan understands that reaching out for counselling can feel vulnerable, particularly when you are navigating shame, compulsive behaviours, self-harm, trauma, identity concerns, relationship difficulties, or challenging digital habits. He approaches these conversations with compassion, curiosity, and respect, creating space for you to explore what may be happening beneath the surface without fear of judgment.
Dan will work alongside you to better understand the experiences, beliefs, emotions, and coping patterns that may be affecting your life. Together, you can develop practical strategies, strengthen emotional regulation, build healthier patterns of connection, and move toward greater confidence, resilience, and clarity.
Whether you are experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, behavioural addictions, digital overwhelm, relationship challenges, or the uncertainty of adolescence and young adulthood, Dan’s goal is to help you feel genuinely heard, thoughtfully supported, and empowered to move forward with hope and direction.
At Gentle Currents Therapy, every person is welcomed with dignity, compassion, and hope.
